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Le Lai de la Fonteinne

Introduction

Le Lai de la Fonteinne (‘The lay of the fountain’) is in essence a prayer and hymn of praise to the Virgin and a meditation on the nature of the Trinity, likened by the poet to a fountain. The fountain itself, the stream flowing from it and its source are three apparently separate things, which in reality are one: God the Father is the source, the fountain is the Son, and the stream is the Holy Ghost. The cleansing and thirst-quenching properties of water, its strength to remain itself even as ice or vapour, the fount of harmony and purity – all are invoked as images uniting in the vision of the Virgin as the true foundation of faith: ‘just like water the sweet fruit of life took on human flesh and human shape in your empty womb’.

The lai was a major form of earlier medieval song-poetry and it is not surprising to find Machaut inheriting the tradition. What is surprising is to discover that four of his lais are polyphonic, though always derived from the single line of a solo singer. Le Lai de la Fonteinne has twelve stanzas, the standard number, which subdivide conveniently into six monodic and six polyphonic sections, alternating these textures throughout. The use of three voices of course reflects the lai’s subject and the three-in-one principle further reflects the particular substance of given stanzas, as does the canonic nature of the music – one voice makes three which are in fact but one.

Such play with words, with numbers, and finally with sound itself is not mere play, but a vitally serious and profoundly inevitable interplay of artistic invention and the recognition of eternal necessities, truths, that surround us and support us. They can be loose and flexible, utterly fluid, yet are ultimately irresistible. Man seeks to harness this force, to reflect it in his own works, by careful construction in accordance with the immutable laws of number and physics, which in turn free him to create and recreate those games of light and darkness that we call the arts.

I never stop beseeching my dear lady to lighten my burden of woe, but she so much keeps her distance and I find her so harsh and proud and unbending that with my beseeching I cannot soften her resistance.

And so I shall approach another lady, who will grant me easily utter joy and with a smile for ever; this is no fickle love and it will never grow less; indeed, the only true joy one can choose is the joy that lies in her.

And where may one seek this joy which never lessens and never ends but instead increases in joy and pleasure? No one, make no mistake, can achieve all this without loving and cherishing that peerless lady.

But no soul may perish or be damned if it spends its life serving and praising her with constancy, for whoever remains entirely hers will come to everlasting glory without fail.

She it is who, bidden by word and the power of the Holy Ghost, which brought this about, and by divine destiny and the command of God the Father

conceived while yet a virgin, inviolate; she bore a child with no distress and gave birth without pain to the Son of God who became man to save us in our misery.

But there is in fact no difference between these three, for they are one in essence, one in virtue, one in substance, one in power, one in wisdom: this is truly a great mystery.

But I do not in the least doubt this fact, for this is my faith, this is my belief, this is my very life and what sustains me, through her who by her excellence is daughter to the father and mother to the son.

These three with little difficulty I can prove to be one: think of a fountain, the stream flowing from it, and its source; there are three things, but these three I find are really one, whether they be small or great,

flowing by pints or gallons: through each of these points comes water of one taste alone: this is quite certain, and of this I am sure. Ah! sovereign queen, who shines above all others, brighter than the guiding star on dark nights,

just like water the sweet fruit of life took on human flesh and human shape in your empty womb. Indeed anyone is freed from trouble and worldly care if he is led by you.

The source, then, is God the Father, the fountain is the Son who comes from the Father and became man, and the clear and gentle stream is the Holy Ghost, that is how it is; it comes from both the Father and the Son. These six are three, that works out if one gives it careful thought.

But I would rather be in Rome or overseas in exile or thrown in the Somme, or the River Jordan or the Nile than believe anything that a worthy man should not believe without risking his soul; for is anything worth a fig without God? Certainly not, I say!

And so I say that these three made you the true foundation of our faith, when the Son entered into you. For here I see fulfilled the the Old Testament and the Holy Sacrament accomplished. This teaches me that you are the source of our religion, and of our salvation truly you are the fountain, this I believe,

where all those who are thirsty may drink freely; and whoever wishes to live everlasting with the King of Kings, let him be cleansed in the stream which flows from there. For that is, in truth, your grace which is extended to all those who secretly weep and often lament bitterly the folly of their sins.

But such comfort as weeping greatly brings me little relief, Virgin, if you do not assure me that you will calm the anger of your Son, so that in the end Man can commit no sin so great that it may not be forgiven, for He cannot deny you power over life and death.

Alas! Now I am prey to all kinds of torment when I recall my sins: and this causes me more distress than I can say, for sin is gnawing at me; the devil does not sleep but rather attempts to write me into his book of death when my life has ended.